Just a few years ago, Jessie Malakouti got her license and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a professional singer. After years of playing at random venues along the West Coast and literally living off of “89 cent tacos”, Jessie finally got her big break. Her song “Push It” is quickly rising up the dance charts and she has an album set to hit shelves later this year. And now Jessie is spending her days opening for Britney Spears on her Femme Fatale tour! HC NYU got to chat with Jessie about her career, being a part of the Femme Fatale tour, and her plans for the future.
HC NYU: So, first off, how did you get your start in the music industry?
JM: I grew up playing music and writing my own songs at a pretty early age and we had a piano in our home so I would take my poems and turn them into pop songs and I always knew that I wanted to be an artist so literally the day that I got my license at sixteen I left home which was about sixty miles east of Hollywood and I went to L.A. and basically started to hustle and meet people and make friends in the industry and get my music out there and make new friends. I started a rock band and was playing up and down the Sunset Strip and at big clubs and one day there was a couple executives who came to one of my shows and saw me perform and signed me on the spot and that was the beginning of my music career.
HC NYU: How did you get involved with Britney’s Femme Fatale tour?
JM: I am a huge Britney Spears fan and a major Nicki Minaj fan so when I heard about the tour I really, really wanted to be a support act. I kind of believe in willing things from the universe and it is literally something that I focused on every day for a few weeks. I have such an amazing team and we all wanted this tour, so we all rallied and got my music to the right people and made this happen. It was amazing; really, really amazing to be asked to be one of the Femme Fatales. It’s been the best summer of my life and I’m enjoying every minute of it.
HC NYU: Have you always been a Britney Spears fan? What was it like when you found out you were going on tour with her?
JM: Yes! I’ve always been a major Britney Spears fan! And I actually did my sixth grade talent show to “…Baby One More Time” which was funny. And I grew up watching her videos. She is definitely an incredible performer who is so electric in front of the camera and on stage. She is definitely an artist that I would watch a lot and then go home and learn the songs and the choreography and so it’s just weird that I’m on her tour and opening up for her. I have to pinch myself, it’s kind of crazy!
HC NYU: What can we expect from your act on tour?
JM: My show is a really high-energy show and everything is up-tempo with a ton of dancing. I perform five songs, and close with my single “Push It”, and there is a really fun surprise at the end of that performance that everybody kind of goes crazy for.
HC NYU: Do you have a favorite moment in the concert?
JM: My favorite song to perform is “Perfect Shade of Red” because I came with this really cool visual side of that performance which is kind of a surprise. I love old Hollywood movies and was kind of inspired by them. My favorite Britney moment is watching “Up n’ Down” and it is so awesome because she gets into these really cool almost like birdcages that go elevate and then sink into the stage and go underground which is really awesome. And Nicki’s whole performance is just sogood. She also goes through this whole thing with different characters and it’s really entertaining.
HC NYU: What is the hardest thing and what is the most rewarding thing about being on a world tour?
JM: The hardest thing hasn’t even been that hard once I figured it out, but just figuring out how to conserve energy because it is a different level of performing. It is not like you have got one club show and then four nights off to go into the studio and do whatever you want. [Being on tour] is definitely a much faster pace of things where you wake up in one city, perform a show, and then go to sleep wake up in another city and do it all over again. And these days I’m doing two performances myself. Trying to sleep on the bus is very difficult. But the most rewarding thing is almost the same thing. It almost is so rewarding that this is my schedule and that I’m even doing this. Even some of the things that come out of my mouth these days I just giggle because it is really funny if I say “Oh, I just performed the Femme Fatale show….” I just start laughing because this is the dream! And playing the shows is amazing to make new fans every night and meet the Fannequins that I already have in different cities and take pictures with them and shake hands with them and talk to them and perform for them. It is the best feeling.
HC NYU: What was some of your inspiration behind your concept to create a band consisting of mannequins?
JM: I’m very visual, even when I make music. If I can’t see a music video to a song I usually get rid of the song and scratch the idea. I make mood boards and I started cutting out old magazine clippings and I found some old magazines from the 80s and went on the internet and researched the style inspiration and found old pictures of Blondie. I knew I wanted to start a band. And once I started creating the mood boards I found that what I liked so much about these pictures was almost that the guys were in the band, but weren’t. Not to say that other members of Blondie weren’t as important or iconic, but just when I think of Blondie I think of Debbie Harry. So I kind of wanted to do something like that. And then I realized that because I write all of music and kind all things creative, I didn’t really want real people in my band that I could get into an argument with [laughs]. It’s easier and they don’t eat as much so it’s cheaper and I don’t need as much catering. That was how I got inspired to start Jessie & the Toy Boys.
HC NYU: How about some of your inspiration behind your songs?
JM: Different things. I people watch a lot. But mostly my own life though, to be completely honest. I’m kind of like a hopeless romantic and I’m sort of always falling from one dramatic Toy Boy situation to the next [laughs]. I mean, everything is autobiographical. Sometimes I even say that if I want to know what my life is going to be like in the next six months I should just listen to the most recent song because I swear it is like a crystal ball most times! I just always start with the melodies and then pull the lyrics from my own personal life.
HC NYU: Your music video for “Push It” is super fun and it’s also your first professional video. What was that like to film and watch it all come together?
JM: That was like Cinderella going to the ball! Because I always just made my own videos and put together my own productions with my friends. And I learned so much doing it that way. But this was a lot of fun and the first time I had a professional crew on set. And I just kind of looked around and, like Cinderella at the ball, thought there were all these people there for me and I had professional hair and make-up – wow! I dreamt of this concept and now it was happening. It was surreal, just surreal. But at the same time I just kind of always knew that I would get to that place.
HC NYU: Do you have any professional influences?
JM: Yeah I love Missing Persons and I love Madonna, I am a major Madonna fan. I love vocalists like Dale Bozzio from Missing Persons because their voices are so unique and there is so much character there. I love Britney’s voice and No Doubt. My biggest influence though is probably a 90s band called Letters to Cleo, an alternative band from Boston and they were in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You on the rooftop. Kay Hanley who is the lead singer has been a really big influence to me and I ended up meeting her in L.A. and she became one of my biggest mentors.
HC NYU: You definitely have a great sense of style: what are some of your favorite pieces to wear and who do you consider to be your fashion icons?
JM: My fashion icon is probably a mash-up between a few different people but probably the essence and classic of Marilyn Monroe and Bridget Bardot. I love old Hollywood and that glamour meets like the funky, edgy side of women like Dale Bozzio and Debbie Harry and the grittier aesthetics that they have style wise. And I love classic prints and patterns, like the whole new thing that D&G did this year. And one designer who is incredible is actually one of my Toy Boy dancers; he is #27 by day and he makes a lot of my costumes and we actually made this whole shoulder-pad piece out of Barbies that were just sitting in storage at my parents’ house. It was really wicked what he turned it into.
HC NYU: Could you ever see yourself doing anything else besides being a singer and an artist?
JM: No, I mean I could see myself doing things in addition to being an artist and singing. I mean I want to do films, both be in them and create and direct them and write screenplays. Nothing outside of my creative work. I could never have a regular job, well not regular because I guess this is also a “regular” job, but nothing outside of the music business or Hollywood that I ever have any interest in doing.
HC NYU: What are your plans post-tour?
JM: Well after this tour, I’m jumping on another tour, the Identity Festivalwhich is the first ever traveling electronic music festival. And the line-up is just really incredible with so many of my favorite artists. I’m a major Skrillex fan, and Rusko, and Holy Ghost!, Nervo, Kaskade. It’s cool because I’m like one of the only girls on the tour, just me and Nervo again!